Death of a Triangle: Girl Meets Yearbook
by BlueBell765
Summary: Rucas one shot, set during Yearbook. Maya and Riley do what they should have done- talk and be honest with each other. This leads to some interesting developments.


**AN: Thank you so much for all of your kind words and encouragement with my first story! This is my second Rucas one shot, which is much shorter and simpler because I attempted to stop the triangle before it started. I have this idea in my head to "kill" the triangle in various episodes, so this might become a series of one shots. We'll see. Hope you enjoy!**

 **I own nothing and no one.**

"Did you find anything out about me that maybe you should tell me?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Riley...Maybe some things about ourselves we should find out...on our own. Maybe-"

"Maya," Riley interrupted. "I was there. I heard what you said about Lucas being my brother."

Maya's eyes shot up to meet hers. "You did?"

"Of course I did. I was sitting right next to you."

Maya turned slightly away from Riley, wishing to be any where but sitting in their sacred space together. Anywhere else, she could lie to her best friend and let her believe whatever she wanted to.

"You two are so much alike, and you're so close. You care about him a lot...like a brother."

"No, I don't."

Maya stood up. "Maybe you don't realize it now, but someday you will. I don't want to see you get hurt. After being you, after saying hi... I felt that connection. I don't want you to misinterpret your feelings."

Riley stood up and walked right next to her. "Are we alike? Me and you?"

Maya laughed. "We most definitely are NOT alike."

"Are we sisters? Do you love me like a sister?"

Maya grabbed Riley's hand and pulled her back to the bay window. "I love you. You are my sister."

"And how do you know? How do you know we're family? That I am your sister and not just your best friend?"

"Because..." Maya seemed at a loss for words. "I can't explain how I know. You just are my sister. You always have been. I have always loved you that way."

Riley grabbed her hand. "And Lucas is like me... So maybe if you love me like a sister, you would love a boy like me as a brother? Maybe you were realizing your own feelings?"

Maya's eyes widened, replaying every moment of the past few weeks with Lucas in her head. "I, I don't know."

"I don't either. I am just asking. Just trying to help you figure out your thoughts."

She put her arms around Maya. "I can't tell you how you feel. I can only say what I think you feel. Just like you can't tell me what I feel. Just because you put on a wig, smile, and talk about bunnies, doesn't mean you became me. It doesn't mean you know what I feel about Lucas."

Maya leaned on her shoulder. "Are you sure? Because I am starting to think I may be confused about how I feel...about a lot of things."

"See, Maya, that's how I know. There is one thing I have always been sure of. How I feel about Lucas. Sure, I sometimes doubt how he feels about me. I have my fears and insecurities. But from the moment I fell into his lap, from the night we spent in the library, I have always known exactly how I feel about him. It's big and scary and I'm not necessarily ready to feel the way I feel about him, but I do."

Maya sighed. "I don't know how I feel about him. He's cute. I have had these moments where...Are you mad? Should I be saying this?" Maya's eyes cut to Riley, who quickly gestured for her to continue. "Sometimes when I get up in his face, I think about how close our lips are. But I don't think about holding his hand or going to the movies together or what our kids' names would be."

A large smile spread across Riley's face. "Alyssa, Bailey, Cody, Dylan..."

"You two are going to be awfully busy, Matthews."

"Secret time? I love Zay's smile. He has a really nice smile. It's okay to be attracted to more than one guy, to notice things you like about more than one person."

Riley grabbed Maya's face. "Okay... I know we haven't really talked about this since what happened at NYU, but how do you feel about Josh?"

Maya's cheeks smushed up between Riley's hands because she couldn't stop the wide smile from overtaking her features. Her eyes lit up, full of light and life. "I know how I feel about Josh."

"Exactly."

Riley moved her hands away from Maya's face. "It's okay to feel your feelings. It's okay to be confused about Lucas or even attracted to Lucas. But it's not okay to decide how someone else feels. It's not okay to lie to me because you think you're sparing my feelings or because you think you know better than me. I'm telling you, Maya. I know how I feel about Lucas, just like you know how you feel about Josh. If you want to explore your feelings for Lucas, I want that for you, too. Just please don't lie to me or try to invalidate my feelings just so you don't have to feel guilty. I am telling you, you don't have to feel guilty. If at the end of this you discover you want to be with Lucas, we will figure it out. Together. We'll confront Lucas with our feelings and ask him to-"

It was Maya's turn to grab Riley's face. "Okay. Good. Then my confusion is over."

"What? Why?"

"Because I trust your feelings. Because I know exactly who I like, who I want. It's Josh. It's always been Josh. I have been feeling hopeless about Josh, but it doesn't mean you and Lucas are hopeless. It doesn't give me the right to decide how you two feel about each other. Just because Lucas is a cute, nice boy that I care about doesn't mean he is someone I should be with. Just because people at school have opinions about us, doesn't make them true. If anyone knows me at all, they'd know the last thing I'd ever do is want anything that was yours. I love you. You love me. We would never take from each other."

"Lucas doesn't belong to me..." Riley murmured uncertainly.

"Trust me, Riles. He does. He has since day one. This isn't me making a sacrifice for you. This isn't me trying to be noble. That kind of craziness is all you."

Maya stood up, her voice picking up as she grew more certain. "It's finally clicking into place. I think I know what we need to do to fix Farkle. Maybe you have rubbed off on me a little bit after all this time. Maybe that's why this weirdness between Lucas and I started in the first place! He sees you in me and obviously likes those parts of me. Why wouldn't he? You are the very best piece of me."

"You are the very best part of me, Peaches. People change people, and being your sister has irrevocably changed me. Nothing and no boy can ever come between that."

"Come on. Let's get Farkle back," Maya said as she yanked Riley out the window, pulling down the dark curtains as she left until the bay window was filled with light.

The girls walked into Topanga's with an air of confidence, marching over to Lucas and Farkle.

"We love you, Farkle, just the way you are," Maya said.

"Farkle is a state of being, a category all it's own," Riley said, picking up where Maya was going.

Maya wrapped an arm around Riley's shoulder. "We know who we are, and we want to help you learn who you are."

Riley continued. "We all have changed, just by growing up, by knowing each other."

Lucas finally cut in. "People change people. You're allowed to change, Farkle. All of you are allowed to change, but I don't think that means you have to become someone else."

He stood up and walked in front of Riley. "It's good to have you back."

Riley reached out, squeezing his hand and pulling him to stand in line next to her and Maya. "It's good to be back," she murmured quietly to him.

Maya glanced at the two of them, nodding at their interaction before facing Farkle once more. "We don't want Donny Barnes. We want Farkle. You can change your clothes and experiment with your look, but please, please, don't change who you really are."

Maya reached down to pull him up, guiding him to stand between her and Riley. "You're our brother, and nothing you do or say can ever change that."

With one hand still firmly encased by Lucas' larger hand, Riley reached out to touch Farkle's arm. "We will always be here for you, to support you, to love you, to pull you back when you go too far."

"You guys are my best friends," Farkle said, wrapping his arms around both girls. "Thank you for understanding. I need to grow up. I need to find my own way."

He looked over Riley's shoulder to meet Lucas' eyes. "I need to figure this all out for myself. Respect that."

Looking down at Riley, he continued, "I promise I won't go too far."

Maya pulled away. "Come on, Donny. I'll buy you a FroYo. We can talk about how far is too far."

She grabbed his beanie. "That is too far."

As they walked out the door, she continued, "If you're willing to put yourself in my capable hands and spend a little money, we could have a make over!"

She clapped excitedly.

The three friends laughed. "How about we just start with the frozen yogurt and see where that takes us? You two coming?"

Lucas started to head for the door, but a quick jerk from Riley's hand stopped him. He looked down at their joined hands as if he was just realizing for the first time their hands were connected.

"How about we meet at Farkle's a little bit later?" Riley asked. "We can go through his closet!"

Farkle and Maya nodded in agreement as they walked out the door. Riley guided Lucas over to the chairs, pulling him down to sit next to her.

"I know I may have been a little...crazy about this whole yearbook thing."

"A little?" Lucas asked skeptically, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Okay, a lot crazy." She ran a hand through her hair before continuing. "I am an insecure person. I have grown a lot in the last year, become more sure of myself, but those insecurities are still there beneath the surface. Listening to everyone talk about you and Maya like that... All these insecurities came rushing forward, along with all these comparisons to Maya, and I was a little overwhelmed."

"When you start to feel that way, come to me, Riley. Let me help."

"I know, but Maya and I needed to deal with this alone first before I could come to you."

Lucas nodded in understanding. "And did the two of you deal with things?"

"I think so..." She bit her lip nervously. "Can I ask you something?"

"You know you can."

"How do you feel about Maya?"

He looked down at the space between them, idly picking at the couch. "She's my friend. She's important to me, and I want what's best for her. I want her to get out of her own way and see that she is more than just snark and attitude."

Riley looked down at her hands, trying to gain the courage to ask her next question. Slowly, quietly she asked, "And how do you feel about me?"

She was surprised to see his hand coming into her vision, reaching out to grab hers, coming to rest in her lap as if it belonged there. That action gave her the courage to meet his gaze.

"I can't describe how I feel about you."

"Oh," she quickly looked back down at their hands, unshed tears forming in her eyes as he pulled his hand away.

She didn't have time to cry though because he quickly grabbed her cheek, forcing her to face him. He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. Riley didn't have time to react before he pulled away.

Riley was struck speechless. Wide eyes staring into his.

"If you want me to compare how I feel about Maya to how I feel about you...There's no comparison, Riles. Maya is important to me, but you... God, Riley, you're everything to me."

Still at a loss for words, Riley's eyes grew impossibly wider, just staring at him.

"Can you, please, say something?" Lucas asked, his voice slightly cracking. "I thought you wanted me to reassure you. I am really putting myself out here for you, trying to ease your insecurities, but I have insecurities, too, Riley. I don't want to push you away or pressure-"

Riley grabbed his face and kissed him. It was another simple peck, but this one was firmer and lingering, giving Lucas enough time to kiss her back.

When they pulled back, Riley said, "We do what we do. I don't care what anyone thinks about our relationship. We have let our classmates push and pull us enough, don't you think?"

Nodding, Lucas leaned in to kiss her again, deciding to press his luck. Everything had been a whirlwind since the yearbooks came out; he had a hard time believing this was really happening.

Pulling back, he pressed his forehead to hers.

She didn't pull away. Speaking softly and clearly, she went on to say, "Well, what I want to do is... I want to be with you. For real this time."

She pulled away slightly to look up at him from under her eyelashes. "Is that something you might want, too?"

"I want that more than anything. Are you sure we're ready? Are you ready?"

She stood up, grabbing his hand. "We have kissed and that felt comfortable and right. We're holding hands, and I don't feel awkward at all. Do you?"

"No. It feels like...Coming home after being gone on a long trip."

Riley gave him on of her trademark Riley smiles, the kind that he couldn't help but return. "Well, then let's go meet our best friends and tell them the good news."

Lucas reached for the door and held it open for her, bowing down in an exaggerated fashion. "After you, girlfriend."

"Why thank you, boyfriend!" She giggled, unable to believe how grateful she was that her class voted Maya and Lucas best couple.


End file.
